Shiprock - Shiprock, NM
Posted by: 
DopeyDuck
N 36° 41.332 W 108° 50.295
12S E 693138 N 4062536
Quick Description: Shiprock is significant in the Navajo religion & mythology and was designated a U.S. National Natural Landmark in May 1975. The parking coords takes you up close and personal to the radiating dike in a roadcut along Red Rock Hwy.
Location: New Mexico, United States
Date Posted: 5/24/2009 2:11:43 PM
Waymark Code: WM6F2Y
Views: 7
Long Description:According to the National Park Service/NNL website:
("http://www.nature.nps.gov/nnl/Registry/USA_Map/States/NewMexico/NNL/SR/index.cfm"
target="_blank">visit link)
"San Juan County - Ship Rock is an outstanding example of an
exposed volcanic neck accompanied by radiating dikes; it towers
1,400 feet above the surrounding plain. Owner: Indian trust (Navajo
Tribe) DESIGNATION DATE
May 1975"
Don't forget to fulfill the requirements for the Tsé Bit' A'í
Earthcache - GCZKG2 while you're there. ("http://coord.info/GCZKG2"
target="_blank">visit link)
According to Wikipedia, "Shiprock, (Navajo: Tsé Bit'a'í, "rock
with wings" or "winged rock") is a rock formation rising nearly
1,800 feet (550 m) above the high-desert plain on the Navajo Nation
and in San Juan County, New Mexico, about 12 miles (19 km)
southwest of the town of Shiprock, which is named for the peak.
Governed by the Navajo Nation, the formation is in the Four Corners
region and plays a significant role in Navajo religion, mythology
and tradition. It is located in the center of the Ancient Pueblo
People or Ancestral Puebloan civilization, a prehistoric Native
American culture of the Southwest United States often referred to
as the Anasazi. Shiprock is a point of interest for rock climbers
and photographers and has been featured in several film productions
and novels. It is the most prominent landmark in northwestern New
Mexico.
Shiprock is composed of fractured volcanic breccia and black
dikes of igneous rock called "minette". It is the erosional remnant
of the throat of a volcano, and the volcanic breccia formed in a
diatreme. The exposed rock probably was originally formed
2,500-3000 feet (750-1,000 meters) below the earth's surface, but
it was exposed after millions of years of erosion. Wall-like sheets
of minette, known as dikes, radiate away from the central
formation. Radiometric age determinations of the minette establish
that these volcanic rocks solidified about 27 million years ago.
Shiprock is in the northeastern part of the Navajo Volcanic Field;
the field includes intrusions and flows of minette and other
unusual igneous rocks that formed about 25 million years ago.
Agathla, also called El Capitan, is another prominent volcanic neck
of this field." Source: ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiprock"
target="_blank">visit link)